Fez Review

This is a review of Fez by GamingDog. Fez caught my eye way back in 2012 when it was released as a year-long exclusive for Xbox Live Arcade. It intrigued me as it was something unique and different. Another indie game with a twist, so to speak.

Finally, it was released on the PlayStation ecosystem, PS4, PS3 and PS Vita. This is the Fez Review for PS4.

What’s the story?

Fez is a two-dimensional platform game set in a three-dimensional world. The story is quite basic you play as Gomez who lives a peaceful and quaint, two-dimensional life until one day when he watches the breakup of a giant hexahedron that tears the dimensional fabric. Gomez receives a red fez and the revelation that his world has three dimensions.

Fez is cute and adorable

First off is the graphics. If you are looking for Uncharted quality graphic here you need to look elsewhere. The graphics are reminiscent to that of the 8-bit era of console gaming. This, however, gives it a unique and quirky quality.

It makes a change to have a bright and colourful tone for a change from the post-apocalyptic, grey and brown worlds that we have become so accustomed to as of late. There is enough variety in level themes from green sewers and purple graveyards to red lava fields and then a common green and brown village style. Every platformer seems to have this style.

Gameplay with a twist

The gameplay is quite simple in essence; find a number of cubes to unlock more of the world. When you collect 32 of these cubes then you will reach the end of the game.

There are many other collectables in the game such as the hidden anti-cubes, maps, keys and others.

You as the player will need to rotate the world to solve various puzzles and reveal new pathways. This is where I really appreciat the level design. You can see why it took Phil Fish (Polytron Corporation) 5 years to develop the game. The level design is complex and very clever.

There are a couple of times where you die frequently, but these moments make you want to keep trying to ultimately reach that yellow little cube.

One of the games downfalls is the highly confusing map. It is easy to get lost when exploring the game. It takes you quite a while to kind of get used to it.

There is enough variety in the game with hidden warp gates, invisible platforms, tetromino puzzles, QR codes, treasure maps and much more. It must be said that in order to complete the game you do not have to find every collectable unless you want to get 100% completion.

Final thoughts on Fez

It is nice to see Fez arrive on the PS4, PS3, and PS Vita, it is cute and charming and very playable game. The game has a unique style and very clever level design, this makes Fez definitely worth your hard earned cash. Even with the only major downside of a confusing map system.

It is a nice to play a game that is different from some of these AAA games that come out every year.